Design Chief Chris Bangle on the Evolution of the Automobile in the Digital Age

Chris Bangle, chief of design at BMW’s Projekthaus in Munich—where the company’s cars are designed—draws the outline of a Z4 coupe, the latest BMW model.

Since he arrived as BMW’s chief of design, Ohio-born Chris Bangle has presided over a dramatic shift in the look of Germany’s “ultimate driving machines.” He brought a new, emotional style to such models as the Z8 and Z4 sports cars, the X5 sport utility vehicle and the top-of-the-line 7 Series. The result has sparked controversy among fans of the cars. Bangle has also overseen the company’s subsidiaries, Mini and Rolls-Royce. He is known for his rapid-fire speech in a mixture of German, English and Italian—nicknamed “Banglish.”

The opinionated and articulate designer recently talked to us about why cars are icons and car designers can be as important as architects.

Why do you argue that the importance of automobile design is underestimated?

Car designers today have to act more like it’s a profession. I think it was Bertrand Russell who said, “The only thing you can truly trust about what a civilization leaves behind is the things it makes.” Car designers have made a lot to leave behind.

If you take all the designed surfaces of all the automobiles that have been manufactured through the 100-plus years of the car’s history, you get something like 10 billion square meters of sculpted surface. That has to be the greatest artistic effort in the history of mankind. That’s more than all the buildings of that period. It’s all around; you can’t escape from car design.

The BMW Z9 Gran Turismo concept car, which debuted in Frankfurt in 1999, had gullwing doors and a carbon-fiber body.

When you think about car design, you shouldn’t think just about one car but about all cars, the total effect. It’s like one note in that whole symphony. Our job is to play that note clearly and let the music play out over time.

You spoke recently [at the L.A. auto show] of the automobile as an icon and a marker of culture. What do you mean by this? What does it take to make a car iconic?

The real icons are few and far between. To be an icon, a car has to solve a problem, it has to allow for evolution, and it has to offer variation.

What are some examples?

Our 3 Series has evolved over five or six generations as the quintessential sport sedan. The American pickup truck is a different kind of icon. The Toyota Prius is perhaps already an icon; it is something you have to come to terms with.

Why do you think your designs have been so controversial?

We at BMW have been trying to look ahead, while most of the industry has been looking backward. Car design has been in a period of stagnation. Around 1999 was the peak of retro. I think there was a point where, as a culture, we hit that century wall. It happened at the end of the 19th century as well, when everyone was afraid to look ahead.

Such periods usually precede a dramatic change. We are one of the few companies to try to break out of the doldrums of simple engineering and branding.

You show images of BMWS beside those of Frank Gehry’s Bilbao Museum and Disney Concert Hall. How does car design compare with architecture?

Architecture leads, but car design is catching up. For one thing, we are global now. We are no longer designing for just Americans or Germans; we are designing for the whole planet, on a global scale.

I like to say that, for an architect, all his products are first prototypes. The architect only gets one chance, but we do many prototypes and refinements. Now architects use our tools, like CATIA, the computer program that came from aircraft design.

What are some of the changes you are seeing in car design today compared with that of the past?

The thing that shapes the design is the way cars are made. We are undergoing a major change. The transition from the old coach-building era to that of stamping metal in the 1930s was one such change. And just as important is the way we are moving from industrial, rational design into the digital era. The surfaces of the Z4 roadster could only be developed using today’s computer-aided design technology.

You can see the difference in two other examples: the classic Zippo lighter and a Nokia 8801 phone. The Zippo reflects the Bauhaus, machine mentality of the 1930s. But the complex surfaces of the Nokia 8801 were created using modern design tools. Frank Nuovo, the Nokia designer, will tell you that it resembles the hood of the BMW 6 Series.

New tools mean new designs. The point is not to use the tools for their own sake but to take advantage of their ability to express emotion. The goal is to create a vehicle that contributes emotionally to the fabric of life.